M ore than a decade ago, Finlay et al. published a landmark article in which they demonstrated that a subset of patients with recurrent brain tumors of diverse histologic diagnosis could be salvaged with high-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous stem cell rescue. The preparatory regimen included only 2 drugs: thiotepa and etoposide. Hematopoietic growth factors were used to enhance count re...

BACKGROUND Compared with traditional photon radiotherapy, proton radiotherapy irradiates less normal tissue and might improve health outcomes associated with photon radiotherapy by reducing toxic effects to normal tissue. We did a trial to assess late complications, acute side-effects, and survival associated with proton radiotherapy in children with medulloblastoma. METHODS In this non-rando...

Medulloblastoma comprises four main subgroups (WNT, SHH, Group 3 and Group 4) originally defined by transcriptional profiling. In primary medulloblastoma tissues, these groups are thought to be distinguishable using the immunohistochemical detection of β-catenin, filamin A, GAB1 and YAP1 protein markers. To investigate the utility of these markers for in vitro studies using medulloblastoma cell...

PURPOSE Medulloblastomas represent the most frequent malignant brain tumors of childhood. They are supposed to originate from cerebellar neural precursor cells. Recently, it has been shown that Sonic Hedgehog-induced formation of medulloblastoma in an animal model is significantly enhanced by activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN To exa...

BACKGROUND Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor in children. Genetic profiling has identified four principle tumor subgroups; each subgroup is characterized by different initiating mutations, genetic and clinical profiles, and prognoses. The two most well-defined subgroups are caused by overactive signaling in the WNT and SHH mitogenic pathways; less is understood about Grou...

Aberrant receptor kinase signalling and tumour neovascularization are hallmarks of medulloblastoma development and are both considered valuable therapeutic targets. In addition to VEGFR1/2, expression of PDGFR α/β in particular has been documented as characteristic of metastatic disease correlating with poor prognosis. Therefore, we have been suggested that the clinically approved multi-kinase ...

BACKGROUND Alterations in the expression level of miR-495 were recently observed in various tumours. Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumour in children. However, the clinical significance of miR-495 in medulloblastomas remains unclear. METHODS The expression levels of miR-495 was examined in 62 archival formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) medulloblastoma specimens using...

The transcription factor Sox2 has been shown to play essential roles during embryonic development as well as in cancer. To more precisely understand tumor biology and to identify potential therapeutical targets, we thoroughly investigated the expression and function of Sox2 in medulloblastoma, a malignant embryonic brain tumor that initiates in the posterior fossa and eventually spreads through...

While medulloblastoma, a pediatric tumor of the cerebellum, is characterized by aberrations in developmental pathways, the majority of genetic determinants remain unknown. An unbiased Sleeping Beauty transposon screen revealed MyoD as a putative medulloblastoma tumor suppressor. This was unexpected, as MyoD is a muscle differentiation factor and not previously known to be expressed in cerebellu...

Medulloblastoma is the most common pediatric tumor of the nervous system. A large body of animal studies has focused on cerebellar granule neuron precursors (CGNPs) as the cell-of-origin for medulloblastoma. However, the diverse clinical presentations of medulloblastoma subtypes in human patients (nodular, desmoplastic, classical and large cell/anaplastic), and the fact that medulloblastoma is ...